God of Thunder

God of Thunder is a 256-color game that takes place in a cartoonish themed Norse world. It has some simple combat mechanics but it’s mostly built around puzzle solving.

The game’s surprisingly easy to grasp. There’s a basic profile system, a save system, a difficulty setting and several tutorial messages in the early stages of the game to help new players along. You can even change the combat difficulty anytime from the menu without having to restart the game, a feature that’s pretty unique in early 90’s gaming. Combat is done by swinging a magical hammer which works much the same was as a boomerang. But GoT’s simplistic action is secondary to its neat puzzles.

The game features three chapters that may be played in any order. Each chapter involves progressing through a maze of puzzles to defeat a final boss-type character. The levels work by advancing through screens. When you hit the edge of one location, the screen slides to reveal a new location. It’s a clever approach where your progress is autosaved upon each entry point. Should you die, you’re reverted back to the edge of the most recent screen you’ve entered instead of restarting the entire game. There’s even a ‘Die’ button in case you get stuck. It’s a great system that allows for gradual progression without making the game feel too easy – and believe me, it’s not easy.

The puzzles themselves are very clever and always require some brain power to solve alongside sharp reflexes. Other parts involve interacting with characters, particularly in the early stages of the game. You can almost call GoT an action adventure game. It’s a mesh of combat, puzzles and interaction with other characters, all very well crafted. And the nice folks at Adept were nice enough to give away their classic for free.